


Recovery

by Mayarene Rose (Paradise_of_Mary_Jane)



Series: lives lived, lives lost [3]
Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2019-10-30
Packaged: 2021-01-04 10:15:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21196007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Paradise_of_Mary_Jane/pseuds/Mayarene%20Rose
Summary: Healing takes time. It's never easy, and it's almost always painful.





	Recovery

**Author's Note:**

> Day 30: Recovery
> 
> *writes side story instead of actually writing the update* I am so sorry. 
> 
> This takes place right before "tell me which life to live."

“It takes time,” Donna says.

“I know,” Dick snaps. And he does. Ms. Martian gave him memories but that’s not the only thing that was broken in him. It doesn’t actually fix anything, just gave him such an overwhelming wave of grief that he can’t even begin to handle. Might have even made things worse, in the grand scheme of things. It’s not like any of them actually knew what they were doing.

But it doesn’t make him any less angry. Dick’s not the only one who’s broken right now. He’s just the only one who can’t handle it.

Donna glares at him, arms crossed over her chest. “You don’t have to be an asshole, you know?”

“Sorry,” Dick mutters, looking away. It feels like that’s the only thing he can be right now and that just makes him angrier. God, everyone in the tower deserves better than him.

“Headache again?” she asks. She sits down next to him, keeping space between them. Dick’s grateful for that. He can’t really handle being close to anyone right now, not even her.

“It never really goes away,” he admits.

“We can always ask Raven--”

“There’s no point.” Dick knows that before he even thinks about it. Raven’s powerful, but not like that. “You know she can’t fix everything.”

“It takes time,” Donna repeats.

“And what if it doesn’t get better?” His hands shake now. Not enough to stop him from patrolling, but enough. And the headaches don’t really go away and neither does the bad mood. It feels like he’s constantly on edge, like he’s always in pain. The pain won’t go away and Dick still has moments where he doesn’t really know who he is anymore.

“Then we’ll get used to it,” Donna says firmly. “We’ll work around it. We’ll figure something out. We always do.”

“You should have just left me in Bludhaven. You’re better off than having to deal with this,” Dick mutters. Donna glares at him and he tries not to shrink under it.

“I’m not even dignifying that with a response,” she says. “Do I have to get the ice cream again?”

“You can’t actually fix everything with ice cream.”

“And you can fix exactly nothing by brooding.”

They’re at a stand-off. Donna’s not backing down and Dick’s… Not getting better anytime soon.

“You’ve never found a problem you couldn’t solve,” Donna says. “Don’t start now. You’ll figure out how to go back to the way you were before or you find a way to move on. You’ve never given up before.”

Dick looks away. “You should stop believing in me,” he says. “It’s not healthy.”

Donna snorts. She sits beside him and bumps their shoulders together.

“Kinda my job, Grayson,” she says.

And that’s that. For now, anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm acediscowlng on tumblr :D


End file.
